Happiness and Motivation in Running.

I just sent an email to an endurance athlete that I thought others might relate to. It is something I find myself sharing with motivated athletes a lot:

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I saw your comments about yesterday's run. I completely understand how it feels to have a "need" to run faster. I'm sure I have shared with you the time I spent learning to "run slow." It is the most difficult thing for almost any runner, in my opinion.

The question that I always ask myself and therefore might be something you want to ask yourself: Why do I need to go faster?

I often find that there are "hidden" reasons within my own mind that create that need, not anything that is a material pressure. For instance, I commonly feel a need to prove my athletic ability. I wrote a blog post just before the Derby Marathon regarding my football coach in high school; there are times today that I still want people in Broken Bow, Nebraska to believe that I'm a quality athlete.

Some people are able to deal with those pressures by glorifying the past, creating the good ol' days scenario. I have not been able to do that, so I consistently seek to be good at something related to sports. This can lead to many mistakes while training and when establishing a race strategy in long distance and ultra-endurance events.

Not only have I found that my need to be "fast" is grounded in my past, but also in my present life. In my everyday life, I define myself as a personal trainer and a coach. When people ask me what I do for a living, I let them know that I work as fitness director at the U of Kentucky, but aspire to be a full time coach and trainer, sooner - rather than later. In those situations, people always assume that I am fast.

How can a person be a coach if they are not good themselves? That is the standard thinking that a lot of people have, especially if they are unaccustom to the coaching profession (it's not like I coach a high school team.... that they might understand). But let's face it, here in Lexington, most people associate me and know me through endurance events. The fact that Nikki is also involved with racing and makes her living as a full-time trainer adds to that characterization, in my mind.

A great challenge that I feel all endurance athletes should accept is to explore their purpose for training and competing. Here are some of the reasons that I hear most when I talk to an athlete one-on-one:

1. to be healthy
2. to challenge myself
3. to have a sense of accomplishment
4. to learn about my limits

Most of these reasons are not about performance, but commonly the performance trap comes in later. I'm not saying that performance shouldn't be a part of the process, I'm only saying that this lifestyle (this is cliche) is all about the journey. If we can stay focused on how we go about the journey, then the performances will take care of themselves.

One book that I recently read that deals with this topic well was, Breakthrough Triathlon Training by Brad Kearns.

This is a long (very long) way of saying, don't let the slower running get to you. Try and do just the opposite. When you are running allow yourself to work through the motivations you have to run faster, even though your body is asking to to remain slower. Developing this ability will allow for a lot of opportunities to open up. Those opportunities might just be, being able to run injury free and possibly even improving performances?

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Just something to share as my time has been monopolized the last few weeks as I finish off my build period. I'll post more nutrition stuff again once I start to taper.